Connected car services will be huge revenue streams by 2020

Connected cars are set to become big money spinners, with automobile manufacturers keen to add connectivity to their vehicles in order to further drive profits.

Not only does the connected vehicle provide reams of data to the vendor, but revenue from connected car internet services is expected to be massive in just five years’ time.

According to a new report from Business Insider UK, such services will be worth over $152 billion (£100 billion) by the year 2020.

Connected features will revolve around vehicle safety and entertainment as you might expect, and safety is the most lucrative area currently – it already brings in $13 billion (£8.5 billion) right now.

Entertainment features are popular – including integration with music streaming services and social networks – but won’t drive nearly as much revenue. Indeed, the report estimated that such features will only be worth $13 billion (£8.5 billion) in 2020, let alone now.

As for payment models, a quarter of end-users would go for a free basic service which is ad-supported – so this is something we could start to see more of before long.

You can check out the full report from Business Insider UK here.

Of course, there are also plenty of concerns regarding the connected car, not the least of which is security following recent reports like the hacking of a Jeep Cherokee including controlling the steering and brakes.

Intel recently formed the Automotive Security Review Board to help combat such threats.